The Nowhere Child in Aussie Readers

Jun 26, 2018 Bree T rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, crime, arc, australian

This book was incredible.

The Nowhere Child is the 2017 Victorian Premier’s award winner for an unpublished manuscript. Previous winners of this award have become very successful bestsellers and this one has every chance of doing the same. It’s so compelling tapping into a fascination with unsolved mysteries and cold cases and combining that with a literary style.

The book is split into two timelines. The first is the present day where Kim Leamy, a thirty year old woman living and working in Melbo This book was incredible.

The Nowhere Child is the 2017 Victorian Premier’s award winner for an unpublished manuscript. Previous winners of this award have become very successful bestsellers and this one has every chance of doing the same. It’s so compelling tapping into a fascination with unsolved mysteries and cold cases and combining that with a literary style.

The book is split into two timelines. The first is the present day where Kim Leamy, a thirty year old woman living and working in Melbourne is approached by a complete stranger and tells her that he believes she is Sammy Went, who went missing as a 2yo in rural America some 28 years ago. The book also delves back in time to during Sammy’s disappearance, revolving around the day or two leading up to it and then the aftermath. When the stranger first approaches Kim, it’s easy for the reader to dismiss his claims, just as she does. After all, who would expect that a woman on the other side of the world would be some long lost child from rural America? If what she’s being told is true then Kim would have to question everything she’s ever known about herself, about her identity and also about her mother.

But faced with some evidence and a few cryptic comments from her stepfather, Kim needs to find out the truth and so the story moves across the ocean to America and the isolated town where the Went family lived. This is a really intriguing mix of small town prejudice and secrets, a powerful religious sect and the mystery of how could a little girl just vanish into thin air? The police had no leads, there was never a body and nobody saw anything. Sammy simply was there….and then she wasn’t. And for her family, nothing was ever the same again.

This book was addictive. It tapped into one of my worst fears – that something would happen to one of my children like this. I remember when William Tyrell disappeared like it was yesterday. He’s the same age as my youngest son and it happened close to where my parents live just before we were about to visit them. Nothing stirs the population quite so much like a missing child. Sammy Went goes missing prior to the internet’s existence but it seems that everyone has a theory but nothing to support any of it. Was it her mother who didn’t seem to be coping after her birth? Was it her father, who definitely seems to have something to hide and a vaguest of alibis? Was it an opportunist who saw a chance to snatch a tiny girl for their own satisfaction? And if Sammy Went is now Kim Leamy, how on earth did she end up in Melbourne, Australia?

This book just gives you so many questions as you get further into it. White takes the time to flesh out the characters of Sammy’s family nicely in the flashbacks, showcasing snapshots into the marriage of her parents and the struggle within the family where one member was deeply into religion and the others were not. I’ve not heard much about the religious groups that use snake handling as part of their church services but I did a bit of reading after I finished this book to add to what had been included here. And to be honest, the rattlers weren’t the creepiest part of the church in this book. Christian White does a fantastic job of really amping up the tension surrounding the practices and devotions of the church that Sammy’s parents are both involved and not involved in.

I was hooked on this story from the very first page and I think it’s one of my favourite books of the year so far. It kept me guessing the whole way through, about so many different facets of the story. I really love the writing, which is so evocative. This whole book has the most amazing atmosphere, I’ve never been to America and but I felt like I was right there, a part of this community when Sammy Went disappeared.

Highly recommend this one.

***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Kim rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, australian-author, australian-fiction, contemporary, bookfair-190208, 2019-read, unhauled, unhualed-2019

Read this in one sitting. Found it unputdownable. Totally engrossing. A great evening's entertainment after feeling like I was in a reading slump for a few days. ...more

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Dec 22, 2018 Kathy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 stars.

The Nowhere Child by Christian White is an enthralling mystery that is quite clever and unique.

Thirty year old Kimberly "Kim" Leamy lives in Melbourne, AU and teaches photography. Her world is turned upside down after she is approached by an American stranger who tells her she might actually be Sammy Went, who was kidnapped in Kentucky twenty-six years earlier. After receiving information that confirms her identity, Kim travels to the United States to try to piece together the events 4.5 stars.

The Nowhere Child by Christian White is an enthralling mystery that is quite clever and unique.

Thirty year old Kimberly "Kim" Leamy lives in Melbourne, AU and teaches photography. Her world is turned upside down after she is approached by an American stranger who tells her she might actually be Sammy Went, who was kidnapped in Kentucky twenty-six years earlier. After receiving information that confirms her identity, Kim travels to the United States to try to piece together the events that ripped her from her family in Kentucky. But the biggest mystery she is hoping to solve is how she ended up living in Australia.

Unable to get answers from her stepfather, Dean, Kim hopes that confronting her past in Manson, KY will untangle the truth about her life. Her reception by her birth family is not quite what she expects. Her brother Stuart has never given up hope his sister would be found. Her sister Emma tried to move forward by admitting Sammy is most likely dead. Their mother Molly clings to her faith although the fundamentalist church that is the cornerstone of her religion is no longer the powerhouse it once was. Kim's father, Jack, left town years ago and she is uncertain whether she will meet him. While Kim is not necessarily finding irrefutable proof of how ended up Australia, she does uncover a clue that raises more questions than answers.

Interspersed with the events unfolding in the present are chapters that detail the day of Sammy's kidnapping and the ensuing search for her. The Went family is somewhat fractured with Molly sometimes losing patience with her young daughter. She is deeply religious and clings tightly to the church that Jack has long since abandoned. After Sammy's disappearance, Emma is forced to grow up too soon as she discovers shocking truths about her family. Stuart does not handle the kidnapping well and he reverts to a happier time in his young life. Jack's world begins spinning out his control as he frantically searches for his daughter just as his life begins to implode.

With chapters alternating between Kim's search for answers in the present and the days after her kidnapping in the past, The Nowhere Child is a fast-paced and spellbinding mystery. The characters are interesting and well-developed but not all of them are easy to relate to or like. The plot is well-developed with just enough suspense to keep the pages turning at a blistering pace. With stunning twists and unexpected turns, Christian White brings the novel to a jaw-dropping conclusion. An absolutely brilliant debut that I found impossible to put down and highly recommend to fans of the genre. ...more

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Oct 19, 2018 Nicola Marsh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aussie-authors, psychological-thrillers, read-in-2018

Got this from a librarian recommendation and it didn't disappoint, devoured it in 2 days during a very busy time!

The blurb alone is riveting: a Melbourne photographer is approached at work by an American accountant, with proof she's a girl kidnapped at 2yo from a small Kentucky town.

What follows as Kim unravels the truth is a rollicking good read.

As an author I always pick plot twists but I didn't in this one, extremely rare indeed!

Grab this book, you won't be disappointed. An absolute page-turn ...more

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Mar 04, 2019 Chip rated it it was ok

Did I read the same book as everyone else?

Ok, I do admit, I am new to this genre, but I was expecting much more clearly.

The plot plodding along, the characters were so one dimensional they were transparent, and the 'twist' just had me dragging my eyes along the words on the page with the same disinterest as the rest of the book.
I nearly DNFed just before the final climax because it was just so ..... lame... I don't know...
I am clearly not going to be popular for writing this review... but I c ...more

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Jan 17, 2022 Dee-Ann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: australian-authors, five-star, mystery, movie-material, lgbtqia, mental-health, religion, surprise-twist, strong-women

Really enjoyed this book. Full of surprises and the image of torturing using snakes and mice will be etched in my memory for a while. The only bit that irked me was the ending, which seemed a little flat. Look forward to reading more books from this author.

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Oct 09, 2019 Joanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, australian-writers

Great story, a bit uneven in the execution at times about I look forward to reading his next one. Kept you guessing right up to the last few pages!

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May 24, 2020 Rina rated it liked it

3.5 stars.

I was pleasantly surprised that this book was set in Melbourne, even though only at the start. The premise was captivating enough to entice people to pick up the book, and the plot was engaging enough for readers to keep turning the page.

While this ended up not being much of a thriller for me, the mystery was entertaining enough to keep me going. The main plot was a bit predictable, although I couldn't guess every little detail of it. The alternating timeline in the chapters was an int ...more

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Sep 09, 2020 Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An unusual, but compelling and intense story of a lost child and her family. Kim Leamy is on a break between teaching photography classes at a TAFE college in Melbourne when she is approached by a stranger who says he is investigating the disappearance of a 2 year old girl from a small town in Kentucky, America 28 years earlier. He thinks she is the little girl Sammy Went. The story is told in alternating chapters in the present from Kim’s perspective, and also from her family’s perspective at t ...more

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